ISPR News

January 3-6, 2008
17^th Western Photosynthesis Conference
Asilomar Conference Grounds in Pacific Grove, CA.
Details are available at the conference website.

We will have an outstanding group of invited speakers, and there will be many talks and posters by students and postdocs. Please encourage students and postdocs in your lab to attend the meeting and present their work. Presentations by students and postdocs will be considered for the Beverley Green and Richard Malkin prizes for outstanding junior investigators.

29 March - 3 April, 2008
Molecular Bioenergetics of Cyanobacteria: Towards Systems Biology Level of Understanding ESF-EMBO Symposium
Hotel Eden Roc, Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain
Chaired by: Eva Mari Aro, University of Turku, Finland
Closing date for applications is the 7 January 2008.
This conference is part of the 2008 ESF Research Conferences Scheme and is accessible on-line from www.esf.org/conferences/08253.

Applicants must have a PhD in Biochemistry or Molecular Cell Biology with substantial experience in membrane protein purification and must have excellent biochemical skills. The successful candidate must have publications that demonstrate their expertise in membrane biochemistry and membrane protein purification, and have research experience in membrane protein translocation systems.

To apply, please send applications to me by e-mail or mail to the address below by October 31, 2007. UBC hires on the basis of merit and is committed to employment equity. We encourage all qualified persons to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents of Canada will be given priority.

More information, including an introduction to secondary plastids, will be found in the attached file. I hope to be able to meet with any potential candidates who are attending the Glasgow Photosynthesis Congress and the Light-harvesting satellite meetings in July.

1) A full time Research Associate position is available in the Department of Botany at the University of British Columbia. The successful candidate will be responsible for optimizing methods for isolation and fractionation of photosynthetic membranes from diatom chloroplasts, isolation of macromolecular complexes and protein purification, as well as setting up an HPLC system for pigment analysis. Protein sequencing will be carried out in collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Julian Whitelegge at UCLA, and the Research Associate will be involved in the analysis of the proteomics data, which will make extensive use of the finished genome sequences of the diatoms Thalassiosira pseudonana and Phaeodactylum tricornutum.

Diatoms are the dominant photosynthesizers in the ocean and have a significant effect on global climate regulation. Their chloroplasts were acquired by secondary endosymbiosis, necessitating novel mechanisms for protein import and metabolic regulation. Our aim is to use whole-mass proteomics to get a better understanding of how nuclear-encoded proteins are imported across the four membranes that surround these chloroplasts. It will also give us a great deal of information about the proteome of these less-studied chloroplasts.

2) Applicants with an outstanding record are also invited to apply for a competitive UBC Killham Fellowship (deadline October) to work on genomics/data mining aspects of algae with Chl c.

Martin was a distinguished alumnus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (PhD, 1947, Botany (Plant Physiology)). Harry J. Fuller was his advisor. In 1996, UIUC honored him by choosing him as the recipient of the University of Illinois Achievement Award.

Martin was born in Philadelphia to Samuel and Rose (Sugarman) Gibbs. He was the Abraham S. and Gertrude Berg Professor Emeritus at Brandeis University. His early work with the Atomic Energy Commission laid the foundation for understanding of several fundamental pathways of carbon metabolism in plants. He was a Member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, USA, the Academie des Sciences, France, and received many honors.

He served as editor-in-chief of Plant Physiology for 30 years (1963-1992); he changed the direction of the field of Plant Physiology toward more biochemical approaches. Martin promoted contacts with, and assistance for, East European and Russian scientists in the difficult times of the 1970s and 1980s.

Martin married Svanhild Karen Kvale on October 11, 1950 (she passed away on April 7, 2006; Martin Gibbs was truly devoted to her and took care of her till her death; she suffered from Multiple Sclerosis). Martin Gibbs is survived by his 5 children, 10 grandchildren, and by his older brother Sol Gibbs.